Martin Chungong, Inter-parliamentarian Union (IPU)

Martin Chungong made double history in 2014 by becoming the first African and first non-European to be elected as IPU Secretary General. In 2022 he was re-elected to a third term of office. With more than four decades of experience and knowledge of parliaments at national and international levels, he has dedicated his professional life to promoting and building democracy worldwide. He is highly committed to rejuvenating democracy, its processes and institutions and is driving the IPU’s efforts to bring more young people into parliaments worldwide. Since 2012 Martin Chungong has pushed to strengthen parliamentary engagement on sustainable development and accountability – initiatives that have brought about sizeable impact. He is also a leader in the field of developing programmes to help parliaments become more transparent, accountable, representative, and effective democratic institutions and has further contributed to establishing governance benchmarks to strengthen democracy. Martin Chungong sits on the Board of the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health and he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as one of the global leaders committed to fighting malnutrition through the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. He also is member of the High-Level Commission on the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 Follow-up, as well as a Commissioner on the Club de Madrid’s Global Commission on Democracy and Emergencies. In addition, he chairs the Global Board of the International Gender Champions; a network of decision-makers, male and female, who have committed to breaking down gender barriers.